Nicktoons Airs Flash Shorts
Frederator’s Fred Seibert and Animation Magazine’s Rita Street have teamed up with Nicktoons, the forward-looking cable channel, to deliver armfuls of animated shorts – it’s the Nicktoons Film Festival. The project is already underway, and has been airing on Sundays as a block. Amongst the shorts in competition are at least 14 shorts produced using Macromedia’s Flash software. The majority of these shorts eminate from Canada, in particular from Corus Entertainment’s Nelvana Studios. And if you’re currently in the Canada, you may have seen several of these shorts on the YTV ‘Funpak’ block.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be watching and reviewing these shorts, but, in the meantime, here’s a sampling of what’s in store over at Nicktoons:
Manbird
by Mark Marek
It’s like it says – he’s a man that’s also a bird. But this ain’t no Condorman, my dear, and it’s not Mark’s first foray into the land of TV. He’s one of the main go-to animators over the New York-based Funny Garbage studio, and he’s been actively involved in all sorts of good stuff for Comedy Central’s Crank Yankers. After watching the short, snoop around his site for some more eye candy.
The Manly Bee
by Steve Daye
Produced by Nelvana, this short seems to take a twist on a fairly popular current storyline – the retired superhero. This time around, our hero, The Manly Bee, has no recollection of his previous life as a superhero.
Rotting Hills: Clark’s New Home
by Glen Wyand
The hills are alive – with Zombies! An industry friend just offered up that the TV animation’s 2005 is The Year of the Zombie, so strap on your goo-goggles, because this one looks great. Another short from the gang up north at Nelvana.
Six Snails Snoring
by Charles Danziger, composed by Drew Hemenger and Philip Carroll
A whimsical counting-themed short aimed at the wee-little ones. Charles cleverly builds characters out of letters, hoping to lull kids to bed. I could see this short fitting quite easily into an episode of Sesame Street. Have a look at the short on the Crunchymail website.
The 9th Life of Sherman Phelps: Serenity Now
Mark Thornton and Todd Kauffman
Hard to tell what this show is about from the description on the Nicktoons site, but I did read that they’re compositing Flash against photos of miniature backgrounds. Way to push the medium, guys. Man cannot live on Flash alone – compositing and the use of photoshop’d elements tend to kick a project’s look and feel away from the dreaded moniker ‘flashy.’ This short also originated from Nelvana Studios.
Miracle Koala: Belt for Punishment
by Mark Capello
This short is pulled from a like-titled series, and seems to center on, you guessed it – a koala. From the brief amount I’ve seen, it looks like Mark and his gang at Helix Animation sure have been drawing their aching hands off. Very detailed models for a Flash production, and it seems as if they’ve taken the extra step to add shading. Lo and behold – this series of shorts was picked up by Nelvana!
Fool Throttle
by Todd Hemker and Morgan Williams
Some funky, cut-out style visuals on this one. The Minneapolis duo have really piqued my appetite for some throw-back styles – ala Jim Flora’s beautiful album cover art. View a teaser of this short here at the ReelWorks site, and dig on one of my favorite songs – Mohammed Rafi’s “Jann Pehechaan Ho.”
The Not So Heroic Adventures of Sidekick: Dooms Day Dog
Todd Kauffman and Joey So
This one sounds like a wild ride indeed. Something about an evil hotdog, and a science project, and a bowl full of bran. That’s a promising combo if I’ve ever heard one. Can’t wait to see this, the second festival offering from Todd Kaufman (see ‘9th Life’ above).
Martini and Meatballs: Avery’s Game
by Mike Csunyoscka
Mmmmm…. martinis and meatballs. This Nelvana-produced piece teams up a pair of pooches who, in this short, aim to save their city from a giant gorilla robot of their own creation. A real unique look for the show. They went with no-outlines, which can be a massive time-saver in Flash, and allows the animators to skew, shapeshift and break apart any and all character elements. I’d recommend this design style to anyone looking to get the most bang for their Flash buck.
Kenya
by J. Picking
At first glance, this might seem like a short aimed at the pre-school market, but you’ll soon notice the subversive humor seeping through. It’s no wonder the web-based version of this short circled the globe a few times viral-style. Mr. Picking’s work can be seen here at the weebls-stuff website.
Gruesomenstein’s Monsters: Freddie and the Yeti
by Mark Ackland and Riccardo Durante
Not sure what this one’s about, but the look and feel is possibly the best in the festival. Would you be shocked to learn where this short came from? I’ll give you a hint – it starts with a ‘Nelvana’ and ends with a ‘Studios.’
Coolman: Deep Sea Blues
by Arna Selznick and John Van Bruggen
A husband-and-wife created project from Nelvana that seems to follow the adventures of the hippest person alive – Coolman. From the small snippet I watched on the YTV website, the production design looks lavish and, dare I say, trippy! Is it me, or is Coolman driving Elton John’s submarine?
